So much going on Earthday, the Expo Line and more. Lots of people
needed to take action.
Plus did you ever make it to the reports at the end of the newsletter?
Best Russell Sydney
310-450-7419
In this Sustainable Transportation Club Newsletter:
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Community based action
MEETING Results, Earthday event planning March 17th
Booth space going, going - get registered before it is gone.
WORKERS needed for Earthday
in Santa Monica April 14th in Manhattan Beach April 21st
in Pasadena April 21st in Santa Barbara April 22nd
You can be a part of this great step forward and help free people
from their petroleum addictions.
Clean Energy EXPO and Symposium Torrance, April 3, 2007
South Bay Energy FAIR & Solar Homes Tour
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA May 5, 2007
ACTION NEEDED on designing the Expo Line Rail and
EXPO BICYCLE PATHS
Outreach and Education
Step It Up to Stop Global Warming-April 14th, 2007
A National Day of Climate Action
Assembly Bill for bicycles and motorcycles Summary AB 1581:
Getting your Sustainable Ride Reports from the Leading Edge
Zero Emission Vehicles Get FREE parking in Santa Monica
VECTRIX Seen in Santa Monica - review of the new bike
Batteries and OVERCHARGING
How to keep SILICON and other batteries going longer.
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You can find the subject you want by looking for the separator bars
with the row of XXXXXs in this document.
Please send any relevant information for inclusion in this
newsletter.
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Community based action
MEETING Results, Earthday event planning March 17th
Booth space going, going - get registered before it is gone.
The Planning Meeting on March 17th was fantastic with over twenty of
our finest activists in attendance. We have really great things going on
with Sustainable Transport Villages at the events in:
Santa Monica on April 14th
Manhattan Beach on April 21st
Pasadena on April 21st
In addition at least five of our members are planning to kick in on the
effort in Santa Barbara on April 22nd. Let us know if you want to join us.
Any companies or groups wishing to get in on the festivities need to get
their registrations in ASAP, preferably before April 1st. Please let us know
as well so that we can include you in any press releases we issue from our
end. Call or email a reply. Phone 310-450-7419
Here are the respective contact points again so you can get right on that.
Earthday LA in Santa Monica April 14th
We need to get our applications in ASAP. The ST Club has already
registered for a half booth and we can probably turn that into a sharing of
a full booth with another non-profit. That would save money let us
know if you are interested. Otherwise here is the contact info.
To contact Kacy earthdayla@yahoo.com
For more Information: www.earthdayla.org
Earthday in Manhattan Beach April 21st
The Manhattan Beach group is catching fire with the Sustainable Transport Village.
Our contact is Terry Conner tconnor.farmersagent@earthlink.net
Pasadena - Greening the Earth Day and Family Arts Festival. on April 21st
Reservation forms can be obtained from Ursula Schmidt
Phone 626/744-7175; Fax 626/744-7085
Hurry on this one as they wanted these by March 16th.
And then faxed to 626-744-7085 or emailed
to ezwart@cityofpasadena.net. You will receive a map and a
confirmation letter in early April.
Santa Barbara "The Green Car Show" / "Advanced Transportation Marketplace
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Contact: Arjun Sarkar, at sarkararjun@hotmail.com.
Festival website: www.sbearthday.org
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Community based action
WORKERS needed for Earthday
in Santa Monica April 14th in Manhattan Beach April 21st
in Pasadena April 21st in Santa Barbara April 22nd
You can be a part of this great step forward and help free people
from their petroleum addictions.
Your help is needed. The Sustainable Transport Club is entering the peak
season for outreach and we are taking on some great projects. It would be
wonderful to get an idea of who can jump in and help with the various
events coming up.
This is all about getting people involved with living more sustainable as
well as helping to organize for a more sustainable future.
We have lots of things to do for events coming up as soon as April 3rd.
Some of you help with set up; some with talking the talk in the booth,
some with follow up activities like getting the names and emails on our
mailing list.
It would be great to know who can help out doing what at the events we
have scheduled. Can you look them over and see what you are up for.
Personally, I will be able to do the SM Earthday and the ones in Pasadena
and Santa Barbara as well as the energy fair in PV. Aggi is up for Santa
Monica, Dennis is jumping in to help with Manhattan Beach and the
Torrance Expo. Chris Pine is leading the way on that one with the Biodeisel Co-op.
Below is the list of the things through May. While others talk - will you
be one of the ones who get the work done?
What can you help with? There are small bits and bigger bits and all the
bits add up to making a difference. People who can help with a truck to
get things to the events are needed. The easiest thing would be to send
cash to cover printing of literature and signs.
Please let me know about the Torrance thing ASAP. Chris would love to
get some more support on that.
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Community based action
Clean Energy EXPO and Symposium
"Responding to 'An Inconvenient Truth'"
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 -- 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Toyota South Campus,
19801 S. Western Avenue, Torrance, CA 90509
Event Program
Panel: "What Can Individuals Do To Make a Difference?"
Moderator Mary Nichols, former California Resources Secretary and Director of UCLA Institute for the Environment.
Matt Miyasoto, South Coast Air Quality Management District Technology
Demonstration Manager.
Dr. Lance Williams, Executive Director, US Green Building Council
Ellen Strickland, Owner of Livingreen and green retail pioneer.
Pervaiz Lodhie, President of LEDtronics, leading producer of energy
efficient light bulbs.
Lunch
Introduction by Congresswoman Jane Harman
Remarks by Lawrence Bender, producer of "An Inconvenient Truth."
Panel: "What Are the Policy Challenges to Addressing "An Inconvenient
Truth?"
Moderator Prof. Nate Lewis: George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry,
California Institute of Technology
Matt Peterson: President, Global Green
Fran Pavley, Former Assemblymember and author of landmark
California law on greenhouse gas reductions.
S. David Freeman, President, L.A. Harbor Commission and
Chairman, Hydrogen Car Company
Bill Reinert, National Manager of Advanced Technology for
Toyota Motor Sales, USA
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Community based action
South Bay Energy FAIR & Solar Homes Tour
2nd Annual Fair
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA May 5, 2007
Free to the Public
Energy Fair: May 5, 2007
Solar Homes Tour: June 16, 2007
The South Bay Energy Fair will show you how to:
* Save gasoline, electricity, and other energy consumption
* Save money and gain convenience
* Reduce national dependency on imported petroleum
* Improve air quality and reduce pollution
Exhibitors welcome get registered now to be sure of space.
David Dutra
South Bay Energy Fair
www.southbayenergyfair.com
david@southbayenergyfair.com
(310) 617-1395 cell
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Community based action
ACTION NEEDED on designing the Expo Line Rail and
EXPO BICYCLE PATHS
The planning for the Expo line from Culver City to Santa Monica is going
into high gear and your input into the process can help make this a great
project. Without your input it could be a disaster
PARTICULARLY FOR BICYCLES.
There are two parts to the project
The Light Rail
The Bicycles Path(s)
The Light Rail will give fast, high capacity travel from Santa Monica to
Downtown LA and connect us to the entire rail system in Los Angeles and
California. Your input about station locations and road crossings can help
make it smooth.
Your input on the route to use can help determine whether the trains go
down the right of way directly from Culver to Santa Monica or if they go
down Venice Blvd. The Venice Blvd route could conceivably get diverted
straight to the Ocean but the current plan calls for it to turn up Sepulveda
and pick up the right of way (ROW) near Pico.
The Venice Blvd Route is only being put forward to keep the trains away
from the fancy homes in Cheviot Hills. That route would change
everything on Venice Blvd and the first to go would be the bicycle lanes
the only high-speed, reasonably safe, east west route for bicycles south of
Broadway. The trains going up Sepulveda would impact traffic and the
slow commute traffic would impact the speed of the trains.
Those of us who are concerned about this can cast a vote on the matter by
contacting the staff involved. The time to do that is NOW. Here is the
contact info.
jsandberg@exporail.net ; or send regular mail to Joel Sandberg, Project Manager, 707
Wilshire Blvd., 34th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90017.
Genetha Eddins Manager Tel. 213-243-5506
geddins@exporail.net
Gaby Gonzalez Representative Tel. 213-243-5535
ggonzalez@exporail.net
For more Info go to - www.BuildExpo.org
In addition to the route issue, it would be good to get support for electric
vehicle parking and charging as well as secure parking for light weight
vehicles including bicycles, mopeds, and neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs)
If you do not vote then dont complain about how it comes out .!
The BICYCLE PATH
There are three levels of CONCERNS about the bicycle path as follows:
· The SAFETY of the path when it crosses various roads (like Cloverfield and Olympic)
· There is GAP between Sepulveda and Centinella that is not planned for a bicycle path
· The way the path connects (or DOES NOT CONNECT) to other safe routes for bicycles.
Safety is the concern that can be addressed inside the existing grants. The
funds to build the path should allow us to find reasonable solutions to
make the path along the ROW as safe as possible. The reality is that it
might require work outside the scope of these grants to really get the safest
route possible. Safety is one area where we can work together with the
staff doing the design work.
The other area to work with staff is to help them understand our concerns
about connectivity to other routes. Unfortunately most of that work would
be done outside the existing grants. The grants lets them do the path down
the ROW as best as possible. It makes no allowance for connecting to the
rest of the community. It crosses the roads it crosses and, no matter how
that works, they are done. The only design in place right is that it will be a
path down the Exposition ROW.
The other issue is the gap between the path from Culver City to Sepulveda
and the Santa Monica piece from Centinella to the end of the ROW at 17th
street and Colorado. Nothing is in place to connect the stretch between the
two from Sepulveda to Centinella..
There will never be a better time to get that piece done than in the
construction of phase two Expo. Line and it is not included in the plans right now.
Getting the money going for the piece in between would require it being a
priority for the City of LA and for the budget at the granting sources like
the Metro Transit Authority. Perhaps we can find other money sources as well.
The bicycle path and the light rail have the potential to become the
cornerstones for making sustainable transportation a reality for the
Westside. So many things can fall in place around these two elements that
it could be awesome.
NOW is the time for us to create a groundswell of concern that these be
done soon and done in the way that serves the best interests of all the
sustainable transport community.
The way to do this is to get all of the bicycle people working together on
the project. This means getting all the activists and organizations focused
on these concerns and getting as many people aware of these issues as possible.
The best time to kick this off would be at the upcoming Earthday event in
Santa Monica. A big bicycle presence at that event could really get this
into the public eye and get the ball rolling toward a real bicycle friendly Westside.
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Outreach and Education
Step It Up to Stop Global Warming
We have registered our Sustainable Transport Villages with this group.
We are using the theme Solutions to Global Warming for our events this
year. It is good to have a national network getting started.
This is our organizing hub for a National Day of Climate Action--April
14th, 2007. On this one spring day, there will be hundreds and hundreds
of rallies all across the country. We hope to have gatherings in every
state, and in many of America's most iconic places: on the levees in New
Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on
the endangered coral reefs off Key West.
We also need rallies outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal
cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps. Every group will
be saying the same thing: "Step it up, Congress! Cut Carbon 80% by
2050." As people gather, we'll link pictures of the protests together
electronically via the web--before the weekend is out, we'll have the
largest protest the country has ever seen, not in numbers but in extent.
From every corner of the nation we'll start to shake things up.
Please feel free to contact us with questions, concerns or comments:
stepitup2007@gmail.com http://stepitup2007.org/
(802) 735-1270(866) 289-7010 (Toll Free)
12 North Street Burlington, VT 05401
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Outreach and Education
Assembly Bill for bicycles and motorcycles
This was forwarded to us from http://cyclesantamonica.blogspot.com
That blogspot is a great way to connect other bicyclists.
Summary AB 1581:
"Upon the first placement or replacement of a traffic-actuated signal, the
signal would have to be installed and maintained, to the extent feasible
and in conformance with professional engineering practices, so as to
detect lawful bicycle or motorcycle traffic on the roadway."
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Getting your Sustainable Ride
Zero Emission Vehicles Get Free Parking in Santa Monica
The City of Santa Monica just passed an ordinance that provides free
parking at any parking meter for certain Veterans and for Zero Emission
Vehicles read electric rides of all times. All you need is a sticker.
The measure was put forward by our own Kevin McKeown and was
passed unanimously. It was a good opportunity to put the case for EVs
on the public record and we even got local press coverage.
There are Zero Emission Vehicle Stickers available from the State that is
separate from the Clean Air Decals. There is no limit on issuance of the
ZEV decals. The Clean Air Decals will still qualify you for the free
parking at any meter.
Application forms can be obtained through the following link:
This is the link to the application form
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg4048.pdf
Restrictions on total length of time in the parking space still apply even if
you have the stickers.
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Getting your Sustainable Ride A Report
Review of the New VECTRIX All Electric Motor Scooter
The rare elusive Vectrix was spotted briefly in the Los Angeles area this
week. The sighting was rather like getting a glimpse of a brighter future
one where people are not dependent on foreign oil and do not add to
global warming or polluting our planet just to get to work and back.
Not only is the bike beautiful to gaze upon but it rides like a dream and
flies with the wind. Ok, maybe I have been riding Spartan Chinese
electric motor scooters and fume spewing super bikes too long, but this is
a great bike based on the brief encounter with the pre production model.
The ride has comfort in mind. The soft contoured seat even gives a little
support for the lower back and is designed for full sized Americans. The
passenger seat looks comfortable. Between the both seats you can fit two
adults easily. The suspension is as good as any full size bike I can think of
the BMW comes to mind as a comparable ride with similar handling.
That comparison fails since the Vectrix has much lower noise and even
less vibration. The Vectrix does not have that drive line torque feeling
either for those of you who have ridden a drive axle BMW motorcycle.
The bike has a top end of 62 mph, it accelerates 0-50 in 6.8 seconds, and
has a range of up to 68 miles. Ok that range is at 25 mph and there is no
way I would ride that way but hey you could if you needed to. You can
recharge the thing in 2 hours so going 180 miles in one day is possible
take a long lunch and an afternoon nap.
Compare this to the state of the art Chinese e-bikes. The Chinese bikes
have a top end of 43 mph, it accelerates like a normal car only without
flooring the engine, and has a range of up to 30 miles. Ok that range is at
35 to 40 mph under real life conditions so that is not an apples to apples
comparison but it is all we have until I get to ride the Vectrix more
extensively. Any time soon would be just fine by me.
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Getting your Sustainable Ride A Report
Batteries and overcharging
How to keep silicon and other batteries going longer.
Electric vehicle drivers have a real investment in their batteries and there
are things we can do to get them to last longer. The problem has come up
for people using the new Silicon batteries that are used in the E-Max and
other scooters. One set died in a year with only 1000 kilometers on an off
brand bike. E max riders are getting a better response but they are having
their troubles also.
One of our club members has found a solution and gives insight into the
problem. Here is his testimonial:
Hey Russell,
Here's what I did:
I noticed that my charger was continuously over-charging the batteries, to
the degree that twice since buying the E-MAX I noticed a distinct, strong
sulphuric smell hovering around the scooter (and this was outdoors)
indicating the batteries were gassing.
After that, they depleted much quicker and lost a lot of oomph as well.
After the first time that happened, I went and bought a household outlet
timer for lamps et al and set it to a max of 4 hours (tested this for a while
until I got the right number of hours) and kept charging pretty much
regularly (every 2-3days, unless I used it very much, then I'd charge it
every day.)
The batteries bounced back after 2-3 weeks and regained their strength
and lo and behold, a week ago I saw my charger even giving me back my
green light, indicating that the pack had somewhat been rebalanced.
My standard setting is: Power charging: 4 hours - Top-off charging 2
hours max
I can set the timer so that it does the 4 hours, then takes about a 6-8 hour
break and gives the pack another 2 hours
Due to the typical E-MAX distress I have only 1 charger left....what can ya say!
Best regards
Stephan
This has lead to an attempt to revitalize the first Silicon Battery set that
died in a year. The timing seems to have brought back some of the power
and range and the batteries are stabilizing. They were giving off gas
venting noises when left to charge all night right before they started to
loose power. They are not regaining their former vigor - perhaps they
were damaged too much.
This advice was taken into account in the handling of a new set of five
silicon batteries running a 60-volt system. That set has been heavily used
for 700 kilometers and was showing signs of reduced range. It turns out it
was not getting fully charged and the batteries were getting out of balance.
We will talk more about balancing in another report. The balancing
results are producing more power. A range test shows show close to the
same total miles with one notable difference. The last few miles were at
slower speed than when the first tests were run. The batteries have faded a
bit but not enough to be concerned about. The idea of timing the charging
seems to be working and or perhaps the newer batteries are better.
There is a test being run on the old battery set to see if it can be
revitalized. Watch for future results.
This over charging problem has shown up in other batteries, specifically a
set of Dry cell SLA batteries from Odessey. Putting a timer on them has
smoothed out their performance and helped maintain the range.
It is possible that gel cell batteries would also benefit from this treatment
as well as many other types. This is one of the ideas behind smart
chargers but it appears that the smart part varies from one brand to another
and that different batteries have characteristics that need to be tied to the
charger.
The overcharging problem comes from the fact that batteries have
different levels of charge. There is a surface charge, which can show a
high voltage level with very little amperage available. The deep cycle side
of the charge has a slightly lower voltage with a strong dose of amperage.
The deep cycle gives us our range. The chargers are set up to charge
batteries to a specific voltage level. When the surface charge reaches that
level the chargers shut off or cuts down the rate of charge. The voltage of
the surface charge drops off over a few hours. If the charger is still
plugged in it will start charging again.
That kind of finishing charge on a lead acid battery works out ok as the
deep cycle charge can usually take advantage of at least part of that extra
charging. The extent to which that is true varies with the type of battery.
What we are learning with the silicon battery is that it has a problem with
the extra charge and it causes gas venting venting that blows the life out
of the thing. Putting the batteries on a timer keeps them lean and mean
easy fix for extra life.
Why bother with that? Well the silicon batteries have close to the same
charge density as nickel metal hydride batteries. They cost twenty percent
the price of the NiMH and if we can keep them working for longer they
are a good solution. The other thing is that you need to make sure your
charger does not do this to your batteries no matter what type they might be.
Call 310-450-7419 or email rides@sustainableclub.org
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Springtime is the ripe time to promote Sustainable Transportation.